


Sink or Float

by TetrodotoxinB



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Danny just wants to take of Steve because Steve isn't going to do it, Fluff, Injury, Jewish Character, Jewish comfort foods, Jewish!Danny, This can be gen or pre-slash or established relationship, all comfort, no hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 22:54:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17496929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TetrodotoxinB/pseuds/TetrodotoxinB
Summary: Steve gets hurt at work and Danny takes care of him.





	Sink or Float

**Author's Note:**

> The author is not here to start Matzah Ball Soup Discourse. I will not publicly endorse either sinkers or floaters. All character preferences are fictional and do not reflect the opinion(s) of the author.

“Alright. Williams’ family cure for all that ails you.”

Steve stares at the bowl in front of him. “Matzah ball soup?”

“Yep. My bubbe taught me to make it,” Danny says proudly.

“I, uh, I had this once on assignment in Haifa. This little old Lithuanian lady made it. Best soup I ever had.”

“Yeah, well my bubbe’s Russian. Her recipe is better.”

Steve nods gamely and lifts the spoon to his mouth. “Yeah, this is pretty great.”

Danny grins proudly and watches as Steve eats the entire bowl, as though he might get up and run off less than twenty-four hours after being shot twice in the thigh. Okay, well there might be precedent for Danny thinking that, but Steve has no escape plans this time.

“Well…” Danny prompts.

Steve shrugs confusedly. “Well, what? I said it was great. It is.”

“You’ve got this look on your face. The look you get when you want to say something but are trying desperately with every drop of your meager social skills — notice I did not say ‘every ounce’ because you don’t have that many drops — but you are trying not to say _something_ that you think might offend me and I want to know what it is.”

Well, Danny already knows he’s thinking something, and if he’s going to press for it… “Oh. Um, why don’t the dough things… _float_?”

Danny narrows his eyes. “It’s called ‘matzah ball soup,’ Steven. The balls of dough are obviously matzah balls. You can just call them that. Secondly, they are _not_ supposed to float. There are some who are under the mistaken impression that matzah balls should be floaters. They are wrong and have clearly never had a decent soup in their miserable lives.”

Steve nods again, a little more vigorously for Danny’s benefit. “I wasn’t saying it was bad.”

“No, you were implying that there was something wrong with my bubbe’s recipe.” Danny says as he snags the already empty bowl and retreats to the kitchen where Steve can hear him refilling it.

“No, Danny, I wasn’t. I’ve only ever eaten it the once. I just didn’t know,” Steve calls after him.

“Well, you’re going to eat it again,” Danny declares as he makes his way back to the table.

“Another bowl?”

“‘Another bowl?’ Yes, another bowl, you idiot. You’ve been hobbling around and loitering in the kitchen off and on all morning and staring longingly at the oven. I know you want the babka but if you’re so hungry you need to eat another bowl of soup first.”

It’s no real hardship to eat the soup, but for the sake of their argument Steve says, “What are you — my mother?”

Danny glares at Steve for a moment, then plunks the bowl down in front of Steve and some of the soup sloshes onto the table. “Your mother. _Your mother_. I swear you are the biggest schmuck on this entire stupid island! Is that a Jew joke, Steven? The whole ‘overbearing mother’ stereotype because I swear-”

“Danny! It’s just a saying. Everyone says that. Not just about Jews. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry.”

Danny glares at Steve a little bit longer and then laughs. “I got you.”

And then Steve’s laughing too because Danny is just so delighted with himself in wringing a useless apology out of Steve. It feels good to laugh together in a way that has nothing to do with the pain meds Danny’s been force-feeding him.

Danny puts his hand on Steve shoulder and squeezes. “Eat your soup and I’ll get you some babka. I made it special for you, so I don’t want any lip.”

Steve swallows the half-chewed mouthful of matzah ball so he can ask, “Special how?” All Steve can imagine is Danny lacing it with the rest of the painkillers that Steve has been refusing to take.

“My bubbe, may her memory be a blessing, made the best babka the world has ever seen. But it was very traditional. And, since I love you, I modified the recipe. Instead of apples or pears, I used pineapple and mango. Very Hawaiian.”

Steve nods again as he eats another chunk of matzah ball. If this is the treatment he’s going to get when he’s hurt, Steve thinks he might stop hiding so many injuries from Danny. Of course he might gain ten pounds, but it will be a worthwhile sacrifice to see what other incredible recipes Danny has been sitting on.


End file.
